Brassia pumila Lindley 1845

Photo by Jay Pfahl

Common Name The Dwarf Brassia

Flower Size 5" [12 cm]

Found from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil as a bifoliate, small sized, warm growing epiphyte in wet montane forests at elevations of 550 to 1000 meters with narrowly ovate-elliptic, compressed pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several, imbricate, scarious, non foliaceous bracts and having 2, oblanceolate, attenuate to the conduplicate base, with a prominent mid vein, carinate leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on an axillary, erect to arcuate, 10 to 12" [25 to 30 cm] long, racemose inflorescence that is shorter than the leaves and appears on a newly maturing pseudobulb with 7 to 8 spreading flowers.

Sometimes cited as a synonym of Brassia lanceana.

Synonyms Brassia lanceana var. pumila [Lindl.]Lindl. 1854; Oncidium suaveolens var pumilum [Lindl.] Rchb.f 1863

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1960; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1982; Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; Native Colombian Orhids COS Vol 1 1991; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Native Colombian Orchids COS Vol 5 1994; Native Ecuadorian Orchids vol 1 1994; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995 as B lanceana; Icones Orchidacearum Peruvianum Plate 213 Bennet & Christenson 1995 drawing ok; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 33 - 36 2057 - 2308 Brieger 1997 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Vanishing Beauty Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 2005; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006 as B lanceana; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szatchetko, Veyret etal 2012 drawing/photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide

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